Manuel de Almeida / Lusa
Miranda Sarmento, Minister of Finance
Finance Minister Joaquim Miranda Sarmento said the government refuses to reinforce the investment in defense if this compromises the surplus of public accounts or increasing debt weight.
In an interview with (FT), this Monday, Miranda Sarmento refused reinforcement of the defense investment that compromises budgetary surplus.
“With real GDP growth [Produto Interno Bruto] About 2%, the increase in defense expenses will always be limited by maintaining a small budget surplus, ”the finance minister told the British newspaper.
Still, the ruler guarantees that Portugal has room to fulfill the objectives of increasing expenses of NATO, at a time when the US President Donald Trump is pressuring Europe to pay more for his safety.
Portugal “away” from Kiev
The FT describes Portugal as a country “facing the Atlantic and farther from Kiev”, which, therefore, “does not feel the same pressure to increase expenses military than the countries closest to Ukraine.
For example, the FT notes that the defense budget Poland is almost 5% From GDP – the highest among the allies of NATO – while Portuguese comes in seventh place in the classification of that organization, by representing only 1.6% of GDP in defense last year.
Portugal pledged to achieve the goal of 2% of the NATO by 2029, with the organization’s leaders to come, in a summit in June, to increase this objective to at least 3% of GDP against those 5% defended by Trump.
Portugal was “one of the few” European Union countries with a budgetary surplus – of 2 billion euros or the second largest in percentage terms in at least 50 years.
“If in the coming years bad economic moments come, we will be prepared to face them,” said Miranda Sarmento, adding: “We need to reach 80%, or below that, until the end of the decade”.
Sarmento also said that the Portuguese government “most likely” was interested in using funds from a loans of 150 billion euros for the Member States to channel to their defense industries.
However, it pointed out that Lisbon wants to compare the terms and costs of the loan with Portugal options in the sovereign debt market.
Regarding expense priorities, the finance portfolio holder considers it vital that EU members coordinate to develop specialized industries in each country.
